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Wimbledon: Nick Kyrgios, Liam Broady and Tatjana Maria affected by rankings decision

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Nick Kyrgios, Tatjana Maria and Heather WatsonImage source, EPA and PA Media
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Nick Kyrgios, Tatjana Maria and Heather Watson are three of the players who will miss out on a rankings boost after Wimbledon

Even if he beats Nick Kyrgios in the Wimbledon men's final on Sunday, Novak Djokovic will drop from three to seven in the world rankings.

That scenario is an unintended consequence of the decision of the men's ATP Tour and women's WTA Tour to strip Wimbledon of ranking points because of the All England Club banning Russian and Belarusian players from this year's tournament.

Djokovic will lose the 2,000 points he got from winning it last year and be overtaken by Rafael Nadal, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Casper Ruud.

Responding to a tweet about Djokovic's imminent drop, British men's number five Liam Broady wrote:, external "I am failing to see how this is punishing Wimbledon?"

It seems that it is players such as Broady who are actually being punished.

A career-best performance but Broady heading for a fall

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Wimbledon: Watch the stunning best shots as Broady beats Diego Schwartzman to advance

Players earn ranking points depending on how they perform in ATP and WTA tournaments, with more points on offer at the bigger events. A high ranking position will earn you direct entry into events such as the Grand Slams, ATP Masters 1,000 and WTA 1,000 tournaments.

Broady, ranked 132nd, beat 12th seed Diego Schwartzman as he got to the Wimbledon third round for the first time and feels the loss of the points he would have earned.

"I'm losing 45 points from last year. I think I'll probably drop back now to 150 [in the world]" the 28-year-old said.

British number one Cameron Norrie, beaten by Djokovic in the semi-finals on Friday, should have earned 720 points to rise from 12th in the world to eighth, which would have been his highest-ever ranking.

Norrie was quite phlegmatic about his own situation, but feels for players around 100 in the world, such as Broady, who won't get the benefit of strong showings here.

"It would be nice to have that and nice to have that blanket of being back well inside the top 10, reaching a new career high, ticking the box, doing that," he said.

"I think it's disappointing for me. But for me, it changes absolutely nothing. I'm still going to be seeded highly and still going to be in every tournament.

"What's really tough is the players just outside the top 100 and guys like Liam Broady who made the third round, and Alastair Gray, who would now be in Slam qualies [qualification]."

Kyrgios to be unseeded in New York?

Further up the rankings, Wimbledon finalist Kyrgios faces the real prospect of being unseeded for the US Open in seven weeks' time.

The world number 40 would normally be guaranteed at least 1,200 points for reaching a Grand Slam final. Even if he lost the final, that would take his ranking up to about 15th, easily enough to be among the top 32 seeds in New York.

Instead, the Australian will need to have a decent North American hard-court swing before it to improve his ranking and get into the top 32 for the US Open, which would mean he can't play another seed until at least the third round.

Otherwise, he - and the rest of the field - will be at the mercy of the draw. As dangers in the draw go, it wouldn't get much tougher than a finalist from the most recent major tournament.

'Maybe the points would have been nice'

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Wimbledon 2022: Serena Williams loses to Harmony Tan on singles return

There are plenty of other players to have done well at Wimbledon who will be hurt by the lack of ranking points for their performance.

Women's singles finalist and world number two Ons Jabeur is likely to drop a few spots rather than close the gap to runaway leader Iga Swiatek. She is also rueful about missing out on the points.

"The more you do good, the more you regret that there are not any points," she said earlier this week.

"Honestly I don't just look at myself. But I look at also Tatjana [Maria], because she struggled with her ranking to come back. Now she makes a good run and she doesn't have points."

Tatjana Maria, the German 34-year-old who Jabeur refers to and beat in the semi-finals, is one of those most affected. She came into the tournament as the world number 103 and will stay around that level, when normally she would have jumped up to about 37th - close to a US Open seeding and good enough to gain direct entry to WTA tournaments.

Briton Heather Watson - who said she would "like there to be points" because she "had nothing to defend from last year" - had her best Wimbledon singles performance in getting to the fourth round. She will remain at around 121, rather than move up to 95 which would have given her automatic entry at Flushing Meadows. Instead, she is likely to have to come through qualifying.

France's Harmony Tan, who knocked out Serena Williams in the first round on her way to the last 16, is in a similar situation to Watson at 115, so may need to qualify for the US Open, unless organisers decide to give reward for her Wimbledon performance with a wildcard.

Australian Jason Kubler, who got to the fourth round and could have risen to 76th from 99th in the rankings, said: "It's funny because before qualies, I was, 'Man, I don't care about the points. Just give me the $10,000', you know. Now it's like, you know, whatever, week and a half later, maybe the points would have been nice."

Australian Todd Woodbridge, who won 16 Grand Slam men's doubles titles and is a BBC commentator at Wimbledon, believes stripping the tournament of ranking points has "hurt both tours".

"This tournament is what people, we tennis players, play for," he told BBC Sport.

"The passion and everything that has been shown with no points is the indicator that that was a mistake. In a situation like Nick Kyrgios, if he'd got those points he would have been seeded going into the US Open, it would have been better for him, it would have been better for the ATP Tour and it would have been better for all the tournaments."

We wait to see if Kyrgios can do well enough through August to earn a seeding in New York. If not, he could, in theory, draw a top-10 player such as Tsitsipas in the first round. Definitely not ideal for the players but the television broadcasters probably won't complain.

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